The routing of telephone calls is well known. As the demand for communications has grown over the past several decades, newer routing methods and strategies have been developed. Some of the factors considered in routing calls include network congestion and cost. Routing information is typically stored in a routing database.
Fraud detection in telephone calls is also well known. Typically, when a phone call is initiated, it is analyzed by comparing the call information with archived information. The archived information is stored in a fraud database. The fraud database provides instructions to a switch on how to process the call, such as completion or redirection.
If the call is not to be completed, it may be blocked or redirected to a service agent for validation. If the call is to be completed, on the other hand, the switch obtains routing information for completing the call from a routing database.
In existing systems, questionable calls (or potentially fraudulent or suspicious calls) are treated as regular calls if no archived information about the calling party or location is available, for example. That is, potentially fraudulent calls are routed like non-fraudulent calls. Routing typically entails the selection of facilities (such as trunks, lines and wires), equipment (such as switches and devices that switch calls and modulate the voice signal) and circuits (forming the switches and devices). Once a call is routed, the network is not able to easily access the particular circuits and equipment handling a specific call.
In addition, monitoring of calls, such as in a court-ordered wire tapping for example, is presently a time-consuming and manually intensive effort.